Lila Barbara Mulgay

Lila Barbara Mulgay (née Zimmerman) lived for 94 years. Born on the Lower East Side of New York to Anna (Simon) and Albert Zimmerman on December 13, 1931, she was raised there and in Williamsburg, and later Boro Park, Brooklyn. She attended the School for Industrial Art, where she studied Fashion Illustration and Costume Design, and went on to work at Butterick Patterns. She was a talented artist, always drawing and sketching when she had the chance. She also enjoyed needlepoint and knitting baby sweaters and hats that clothed countless children.

She was alive for the founding of the State of Israel, and she had a lifelong love with the Jewish homeland. She visited Israel four times in her life. Even as she advanced in years, she always hoped to visit again and to see family there.

Shy by nature, she always found people who were alone without family in her communities. Her Shabbat and holiday table often included guests who had no one else to celebrate with—and whom she treated like members of her own family.

She married Albert Mulgay (d. 2010) in 1958. The couple met through their mutual friendship with the comedian Jackie Mason and his family. Albert served as a Hazzan (cantor) in synagogues. His work brought the family to Des Moines, IA; Portland, OR; Peekskill, NY; Bayonne , NJ, and Summit, NJ. Upon Albert’s retirement in 1991, the couple settled in Lynn and then Swampscott, MA, to be close to their son and family.

More than anything, Lila loved and cared for her family. She loved her parents, and especially adored her father, who died in 1981. She was very protective of her younger brother, Eli, and her younger cousins. As the only girl in her extended family, she was doted on by her many aunts. Her son often described her as exceptionally loving and perhaps a little overprotective. Her greatest joy was to see her grandsons grow into young men. A loving and caring person by nature, even in her final chapter, as she was beset by dementia, she developed loving relationships with her several caregivers. She lived for the love she could give and the love she received.

Lila is survived by her son, Mark, of Cambridge, with whom she lived her last 16 years; her two grandsons, Noah of Cambridge, and Ari and his wife, Daphne Maeglin, of Tulsa, OK; and her brother Eli and sister-in-law Sheila (Landgarten) of Boca Raton, FL. Lila passed on in her sleep at home in Cambridge on Sunday, May 3rd. Her funeral service took place at Chabad of the North Shore in Swampscott, and she is buried at Maple Hill Cemetery in Peabody, MA, alongside her husband, Albert.

Contributions in her memory can be made to Chabad of the North Shore, Swampscott, MA; The Orthodox Minyan at Harvard Hillel, Cambridge, MA; The Artsbridge Institute, Swampscott, MA; and Friends of Interfaith Encounter Association, Springfield, VA. Her son is sitting shiva in Cambridge, and her brother in Boca Raton.

May her memory be a blessing.